Some people are wondering if the blackout did any good. Here's a clue.

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The newly-opposed Senators are skewed strongly to the Republican side of the aisle. An Ars Technica survey of Senators' positions on PIPA turned up only two Democrats, Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who announced their opposition on Wednesday. The other 11 Senators who announced their opposition on Wednesday were all Republicans. These 13 join a handful of others, including Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), who have already announced their opposition.

Marco Rubio, a freshman Republican Senator from Florida who some consider to be a rising star, withdrew his sponsorship of the bill, citing "legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government's power to impact the Internet." He urged the Senate to "avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences."

snip

The partisan slant of the defections is surprising because copyright has not traditionally been considered a partisan issue. Before Wednesday's protests, PIPA had 16 Republican co-sponsors and 23 Democratic ones. The bill lost a quarter of its Republican sponsors on Wednesday, while we know of only one Democrat, Ben Cardin (D-MD), who dropped his support.

Those who dropped their support were most likely bolstered by strong opposition from conservative think tanks and blogs. On Tuesday, the influential Heritage Foundation announced that it would include SOPA and PIPA as a key issue on its voter scorecard. And the popular conservative blog redstate.com, whose founder threatened to mount primary challengers to SOPA supporters last month, has been hailing Senators who come out in opposition.

/snip

Even tho this was a bi-partisan bill, it looks like the Republicans are scrambling to turn this on the Dems.

Despite the FACT that it is the Dems that are still supporting SOPA, no one has one harsh thing to say about the Dems still supporting it, and they laughed at and belittled Rubio when he changed his mind.

As much, if not more, than the motion picture, music, and arts communities. Money talks, you know -- especially to Republicans.

I hope you realize this is pretty much a fight between two giant corporate interests, each fighting on their own behalf. The only people who really have something to lose are smaller Web sites on the one hand, and smaller artists and producers on the other. Both issues are real: internet integrity, and piracy. Wikipedia has skin in the game: I think their concerns are valid, along with other noncommercial Web sites, including this one; but so do independent filmmakers and artists. I hope now a rational compromise can be made.

All in all though, I didn't miss LOLcats.

And just WHO is continuing to support it? Democrats!!, but all they can do is claim that it's the fault of Republicans....because "money talks".
Here's another:
link

Star Member Archae (21,561 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

Serious question: Did this protest today do a damn bit of good?
SOPA and it's bastard kid in the Senate are not dead.

The people who so desperately want SOPA are throwing millions of $$$ around.

I think We The People may have won this one. More senators shifted today, including some bill sponsors. Given the wide support - left AND right - among ordinary people, this was a Storm-in-Training that the Vanguard of Cowards (aka the Senate) didn't want to face. Even that fuckwad from South Carolina. Jim DimWit, said he's against it.

Says Stinky, totally ignoring the fact that it is the Democrats who continue to support it.

They remind me of the libs on this board. They cannot just see the truth as it is without putting on their liberal glasses that filter facts through a faulty prism.

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.C. S. LewisDo not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives. (Are you listening Barry)?:mad:Ayn Rand